reading, learning, libraries, life: pick, taste, savor, enjoy

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About

I am a librarian and a lover of good reads, fiction and non-fiction. I have a passion for what makes a good read, which can be so different for different people and also for the same person at different times. I am particularly fond of audiobooks, and rather ga-ga for books I can download from my library, whether to listen to or to read.

I am also a storyteller, and a former Folklore student, with an unquenchable fascination for all the ways there are to be human and to express who we are in connection with other people. My love for stories feeds my love for on-screen storytelling (e.g., TV and movies), and I keep an eye on new ideas for storytelling and “reading” in the transmedia and transliteracy movements.

Talking with people about books (and movies, and other story places), and finding out what they like about what they read, makes life like one never-ending bowl of ice cream that is always good for you.

I thoroughly enjoy the “all ages” aspect of my work, from the littlest ones to elders, with a special affinity for teens. A cinephile and home theater nut who built her own home theater PC (twice), I am comfortable with technologies and enjoy exploring both hardware and software, devices and apps.

Professionally, I live to collaborate, and revel in connecting productively with playmates both new and known. Community outreach and partnerships make my work sing. Designing, implementing and evaluating meaningful, engaging programs for people of all ages brings me enormous satisfaction. I was very lucky to begin this kind of work at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures (www.indiana.edu/~mathers), where I had a blast as the Curator of Education while finishing my Masters in Library Science with a concentration in Youth Services.

By the luck of the job-hunting draw my first job out of Library School was as a small-town library branch manager, which let me continue to develop my skills in programming, outreach and community connections while also growing as a supervisor, colleague and leader. It’s been management ever since, which has only heightened my conviction that advocacy (for the life of the spirit that the library feeds, and for readers themselves) is perhaps the library’s most vital role.

I grew up in Seattle, went away to Music School in Indiana, fell in love (yay!) and settled down there to pursue Folklore and Ethnomusicology (with a minor in African Studies), and then Library Science (yay!). 3 and 2/3 degrees later (A.B.D. 4 eva!), my sweetheart and I returned to the Northwest to begin my career as a librarian in 2006.